Thunder Road
by Daughter of Hypnos
Summary: Thalia and Luke were running away for two years before they found Annabeth, here's what happened. Set to Thunder Road in honor of the Big Man. No romance.


_**A/N Okay this is set to Bruce Springsteen's Thunder Road. If you have never heard it one you are missing out and two there on my page. In honor of the Big Man! **_

_The screen door slams, Mary's dress waves_

_Like a vision she dances across the porch as the radio plays _

Thalia grabbed her backpack. It was stuffed with cloths, cash, water, and some "gifts" from her father that never bothered to show up until now. Her father, Zeus, came to visit; her mother was half drunk at the time so he did most of the talking. When he tried to give her nothing more than a jar of mace and a silver charm bracelet as an apology she stood up and walked into her room and locked her door behind her. She couldn't take it any more, she was done. The alcoholic mother, the dead-beet, pathetic excuse of a father. She had made up her mind; she opened her first story window and climbed out. She swore to her father that she would never come back.

_Roy Orbison singing for the lonely_

_Hey, that's me and I want you only_

_Don't turn me home again; I just can't face myself alone again_

_Don't run back inside, darling; you know just what I'm here for _

Twelve-year-old Luke slammed his front door and made his way down his front lawn. He had just witnessed one of his mother's episodes. The last one he ever would witness. And where was my mother in all of this? Luke thought, to busy to help when I got scared?

No more of that, he was going to leave that place forever, whether his mother liked it or not. Luke heard the door open, "Luke, will you be back for lunch?"

"Yeah, mom,"

_So you're scared and you're thinking that maybe we ain't that young anymore_

_Show a little faith, there's magic in the night_

_You ain't a beauty but, hey, you're alright _

Thalia was losing a fight to a hellhound a week after she left home. Along the way she discovered the secrets hidden behind the jar of mace and the silver bracelet; a spear in the jar of mace and shielded in the bracelet. Despite these gifts and her new-fund talent of fighting, she was close to losing. By chance the monster dissolved into a gold powder.

When Thalia looked up, a boy a few years older than her with blue eyes and blond hair was standing where the hellhound had been. He had a knife in one hand, but the other he extended to help her up. "I'm Luke,"

"Thalia,"

"Nice name, you a demigod?"

"Evidently, daughter of Zeus,"

"Don't think Hera will like that very much,"

"Yeah well mommy and daddy weren't too happy about it either. Now what about you? Where did you come from?"

"Son of Hermes. Are you on the run too?"

"That doesn't concern you,"

"Considering I just saved your life…"

"I was just fine on my own,"

"Not from where I was standing, now tell me are you a runaway?"

"Are you?"

"Yeah,"

"So am I,"

"Where are you from?" Luke asked her,

"Who cares, I ran away and I'm never going back,"

"We have a lot in common, Thalia. We could make quite a team. Come with me."

Part of Thalia was telling her not go with him, that it wasn't smart running off with a complete stranger. But there was an even greater part that longed to go with him. Together there was a better chance of staying alive, someone to watch your back. "I'll come with you,"

_Oh, and that's alright with me _

"Do you think we have any chance of surviving?" Thalia asked him. He looked at her, "I don't know, but we can try."

_You can hide 'neath your covers and study your pain_

_Make crosses from your lovers, throw roses in the rain_

_Waste your summer praying in vain_

_For a savior to rise from these streets _

After fighting off a manticore on the side of a highway, Thalia and Luke at down. It was earl morning, around four and still dark and misty. Thalia had a nasty green cut running across her hip from where the manticore had gotten her. Luke took her leg, and she winced in pain. "It doesn't look that bad," Luke assured her, "manticore poison hurts but it won't kill,"

He took out a water bottle they had stolen from a gas station, opened it, and poured the water on the wound to clean some of the poison and dirt out. AS Luke did this, Thalia said a silent prayer to her father.

"Stop that," Luke told her as if he could read her mind.

Stop what?" She questioned.

"Preying in vain to the gods. They won't help, if they wanted to they would have started helping a long time ago."

With that, Luke tore off the bottom of his shirt and used it as a bandage for Thalia's wound. When he was done, Thalia picked a wiled flower from the side of the road and threw it on the pile of monster dust in mock mourning.

_Well now, I ain't no hero, that's understood_

_All the redemption I can offer, girl, is beneath this dirty hood_

_With a chance to make it good somehow_

_Hey, what else can we do now? _

The plan was simple; Thalia would fake an injury, Luke would sneak behind the counter and take what ever was in the register leave through the back and they would both meet behind the restaurant. The plan should be enough to fool the employees at McDonalds.

Thalia walked up and 'slipped' on a puddle on the floor. She grabbed her ankle in pain as people gathered around her. After a few minutes she saw that Luke had gone. She asked for help standing, and then said her mother was in the parking lot. The manager gave her some food for free and sent on her way after she promised not to sew.

When she was out of the restaurant she made her way into the woods behind it. Luke was sitting on a tree stump counting the money. She walked over and handed him a bag, which he absent-mindedly reached into, pulled some fries out of, and stuffed in his mouth. Thalia took out her burger and ate it while she waited for Luke to finish. When he did she asked "So how much did we get?"

"$105.09"

"You're a hero Luke."

"I'm no hero, come on let's put this to good use.

The used the money to buy a train ticket for somewhere east. And things were okay, maybe even good.

_Except roll down the window and let the wind blow back your hair_

_Well, the night's busting open, these two lanes will take us anywhere_

_We got one last chance to make it real_

_To trade in these wings on some wheels_

_Climb in back, heaven's waiting on down the tracks _

Luke held out the basketball sneakers that sprouted wings, "I think my father left them for me," Thalia and Luke, were sitting on the damp floor of their safe house a few yards from the Jersey died of the Delaware River.

"Are they safe?" Thalia questioned.

"Probably, I mean, I know my father doesn't like me but I doubt he would rig these to drag me into the river and drown me," He slipped the shows on and laced them. "You want to come try them put with me?" He didn't wait for an answer; instead he grabbed her wrist and dragged her out into the early morning sun.

"I don't think that's a good idea. You see, I have this horrible fear…."

"Maia!" Luke shouted before Thalia could finish. Luke grabbed her by the waist and together they shot off into the sky. Thalia screamed and shook with fear. "Let me down! Let me down! Let me down!"

They landed lass than gracefully. Thalia doubled over, trying not to be sick. "Daughter of Zeus, Lord of the Skies, afraid of heights?"

"You would be afraid of heights too if you fell out of five story window when you were three."

"That explains so much." Thalia punched him in gut. "For your information and eagle caught me before I hit the ground,"

All Luke was able to say to this was, "I have internal bleeding,"

"Come on," Thalia said helping him up, let's go hop a train."

_Oh oh, come take my hand_

_We're riding out tonight to case the promised land_

_Oh oh oh oh, Thunder Road_

_Oh, Thunder Road, oh, Thunder Road_

_Lying out there like a killer in the sun_

_Hey, I know it's late; we can make it if we run_

_Oh oh oh oh, Thunder Road_

_Sit tight, take hold, Thunder Road _

The rain was in full downpour around Thalia and Luke as they ran, laughing, to the safe house. Thalia slipped and fell into a mud puddle, making a splash. She only laughed harder. Luke helped her up. They were both hungry, wet, tired, and generally disgusting. But they had never laughed harder.

They ran another hundred yards to their safe house and scrambled inside, just in time for lightning to strike fifty yards outside of where they were sitting. "Is that all you got, _daddy _?" Thalia yelled in mockery. The thunder only got louder, but the runaways didn't care.

_Well, I got this guitar and I learned how to make it talk _

Luke and Thalia were in a music store messing around when Luke picked up a guitar. He attempted to play it like he had seen so many performers do. Instead of rock and roll, he produced some ungodly noise. Thalia cringed and ripped the guitar from his hands. "Don't ever do that again."

_And my cars out back if you're ready to take that long walk_

_From your front porch to my front seat_

_The door's open but the ride ain't free _

The bus doors opened and Thalia and Luke walked on. The bus driver looked at them expecting them to pay the bus fee. They both fished some money out of their pockets and handed it to him. They took a seat near the front of the bus incase they needed to make a quick getaway.

They sat there apprehensively in silence for the first fifteen minutes. Then the bus came to a stop, both looked up to see what had stopped the bus. At first they thought it was a small black and white puppy sitting in the middle of the road. The mist quickly stopped clouding their vision and the dogs form shifts into a massive ten-foot, all black, hellhound with glowing red eyes. "Aw, hell," Luke complained, "here we go again,"

_And I know you're lonely for words that I ain't spoken_

_But tonight we'll be free, all the promises'll be broken _

"Luke, I know we promised never to talk about it but," Thalia and Luke were sitting in their safe house in Vermont, "what happened to your mother that made you want to run away?" Thalia asked, looking at Luke. Luke sighed and said, "My mother isn't normal,"

"Trust me," Thalia told him, "mine isn't either,"

"You don't get it!" Luke shouted. His voice calmed but kept its angry tone. "When my mother was acting normal she belonged in an asylum. But sometimes her…her eyes would start to glow bright green and she would babble on about my fate."

"Were they scary, her episodes?"

"Enough to make a little boy want to run away from home,"

_There were ghosts in the eyes of all the boys you sent away_

_They haunt this dusty beach road in the skeleton frames of burned-out Chevrolets _

Zoe and Thalia were in a heated argument. Her and Luke had run into the hunters somewhere near Main. When Thalia refused to join, the lieutenant wasn't happy. She swore to Thalia that she would regret her decision. Thalia swore she wouldn't.

_They scream your name at night in the street_

_Your graduation gown lies in rags at their feet _

"You will regret this Thalia Grace! You can't trust boys!" Zoe yelled as Thalia and Luke walked from the hunter's camp.

_And in the lonely cool before dawn_

_You hear their engines rolling on_

_But when you get to the porch, they're gone on the wind _

When Thalia and Luke woke up the next morning, they found the hunt had left, leaving no sign that they had ever been there. "Well good riddance!" Thalia yelled at the former camp sight.

_So Mary, climb in _

They were somewhere in Kansas. Thalia was sitting on the corner of a dirt road waiting for Luke who claimed to have an idea. He came back a few minutes later pushing a motorcycle with him. "Where id you get that?" Thalia asked.

"Bought it from an old guy,"

"You didn't seal it did you?"

"No, and why do you suddenly have a problem with stealing?"

"I just wouldn't like it if you stole something from an old man,"

He looked at her like she had gone mad, "What? I sill have some kind of morals," Thalia told him.

"Since when?" That earned him a punch in the arm, but he recovered quickly. "Come one, get on."

_It's a town full of losers _

"Do you know how to drive this thing?" Thalia asked.

"Not at all," with that Luke took off down the dirt road; Thalia almost fell off the motorcycle before she wrapped her arms around Luke. He laughed at her and said, "Oh yeah, hold on."

"I swear Luke on day you are going to get me killed."

_I'm pulling out of here to win _

_**thanks, this was started about a year ago in an old journal and as I was cleaning out my room I came across it and found this. So I finished it. I'm not that happy with it, but you know I'll deal. Although I would like to apologize to the Boss for reducing his masterpiece into a fanfiction. **_


End file.
